On Wednesday 30 April, the European Commission announced that it would be investing €910 million in 62 new projects under the 2024 edition of the European Defence Fund (EDF).
This will bring total EU funding for collaborative defence R&D to over €4 billion from 2021.
Of the projects selected, over €360 million has been allocated to 39 research projects and €539 million to 23 collaborative capability development projects. 13 projects are linked to permanent structured cooperation (PESCO). SMEs represent more than 38% of all participating entities and will receive more than 27% of the total EU funding requested.
The projects selected address 32 topics structured around four thematic calls for proposals, as well as bottom-up calls focusing on SMEs. These include advanced passive and active sensors, air, land and sea combat and air missiles, cyber, energy resilience and environmental transition, force protection and mobility, information superiority, simulation and training, space and underwater warfare. Nine projects have been selected to develop breakthrough technologies, with a total budget of €45 million.
In addition, for the first time, Ukrainian defence industries can be involved in EDF projects. The Ukrainian Small UAS project, for example, focuses on developing advanced AI-driven air systems.
This fourth edition of the EDF calls attracted a record number of 299 proposals, involving 625 legal entities from 26 EU Member States and Norway.
See the projects: https://aeur.eu/f/gmb (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)